Jim Watson - Calling You Home

Jim Watson is the first-call pianist for a range of internationally renowned artists from across the pop spectrum - including Van Morrison and Incognito - while maintaining a busy schedule of touring and teaching at the heart of the UK's jazz scene. 'Calling You Home' finds him right back where it all began - seated by himself at the piano, with no-one else in the room, just playing the music that feels closest to him.

It's how I began playing as a child - how we all start. I just wanted to go in and do something that felt easy and natural. The solo piano record is a format that's at once intimate and revealing - there's nowhere to hide, but at the same time there's the freedom to explore the music that's closest to the performer. Looking in the musical mirror, Jim was inspired to create a set of original compositions that incorporate some of his most personal inspirations and set them alongside an eclectic selection of some of his favourite pop tunes from across the ages. I locked myself in the studio and wrote six tunes in six days!

The title track and centrepiece of the record is 'Calling You Home' - a gospel-inflected song written by Jim and named by his wife, evoking a powerful sense of belonging, and of being at peace within oneself. Calling You Home is at once introspective and generous in the way it reaches out to the listener - the sound of a player who's at home both figuratively and literally, reaching inside to find his favourite musical resonances and reaching out to share them with the listener. It felt really natural - a return back to where it all started, the place I feel most happy.